As treaties and trade agreements are implemented this year, more U.S. companies are looking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for fresh business opportunities. Fortunately, a whole host of logistics and transportation service providers are laying the groundwork to overcome inherent infrastructure challenges.

Today, U.S. trucking companies face more regulations than any time in history—and they claim this “regulatory tsunami” is putting the clamp on U.S. productivity. During this session shippers will gain a better understanding of the current state of trucking regulations (HOS & CSA) and the impact they're having on capacity and rates.

Menlo Worldwide Logistics LLC, a third-party logistics (3PL) subsidiary of freight transportation services provider Con-way Inc., recently introduced a freight brokerage service in Europe, which is located in Amsterdam at its European headquarters.

This new offering comes to market and is being rolled out across Europe, following a year-long effort focused on preparation and trial operation, according to Menlo. Leading the new entity is Richard de Ritter, whom has been with Menlo for more than eight years managing transport solutions for customers of Menlo’s logistics services, and has almost 20 years of experience working for supply chain service providers and container transport operators.

And the company said Menlo’s freight brokerage is currently managing more than 500 shipments per month for various modes, including: truckload, parcel, groupage, full container and LCL, air freight, and ocean, with most of the volume coming with within Europe along with Asian- and North America-destined cargo.

Tommy Barnes, president of Con-way Multimodal, the company’s North American freight brokerage, told LM that the evolution of Menlo’s freight brokerage was based on the record of success and growth Con-way Multimodal has seen over the last seven years.

“We started the Con-way Multimodal group in 2007 and have had very strong gross and net revenue growth through 2014,” he said. “We asked ourselves ‘how do we continue to differentiate ourselves?’ We will do this through regional and mode expansion. Fortunately, we are one of the few companies that has the ability to leverage our global infrastructure (at Menlo). As a result, we plan to rapidly grow our global footprint (leveraging our existing processes and technology from other regions). The EU expansion has been trial phase for approximately one year. We tested technology, process and completed our five-year strategic plan for this region during this period.”

Barnes explained that Menlo’s freight brokerage will be a value-based freight brokerage service that will have a strong focus on visibility and real time reporting through its new technology. And he said that the group will be focused on longer-term transportation value as it will look at the shipment(s) and optimize through its internal tools to allow its shippers to build a smarter, more efficient transportation network.

Prior to the introduction of this new offering, Menlo did not formally provide European-based brokerage services via a third party or internally for its Freight Brokerage unit. Barnes said that Menlo Logistics Europe currently has approximately $45 million in freight under management as part of the 3PL network, which he said is more total transport network outsourcing, with many integrated warehouse solutions, versus brokerage.

Going forward, Barnes said that Menlo Freight Brokerage Europe will be following a well-defined strategic roadmap that will focus on organic growth with existing customers and large growth with new customers, noting that the Freight Brokerage team will have a portfolio of many modes but will keep a very strong focus on the base group of road and multimodal transport.

“Key to our service offering is a multimodal, consultative approach to our customers’ transport needs,” said Tony Gunn managing director for Menlo Logistics in Europe, in a statement. “We will advise the optimum routing and modal mix for any given European shipment profile. Our emphasis is on value, of which price is a component but not everything, which is consistent with the value-add approach Menlo takes with all of our supply chain offerings. This product is highly complementary to our portfolio and adds a capability which our customers have been inquiring for some time.”

About the Author

Jeff BermanGroup News Editor

Jeff Berman is Group News Editor for Logistics Management, Modern Materials Handling, and Supply Chain Management Review. Jeff works and lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where he covers all aspects of the supply chain, logistics, freight transportation, and materials handling sectors on a daily basis. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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